1. Field of Invention
The present invention relates to a shift lever of an automatic transmission, and more particularly, to shift/tilt locking apparatus and method for a shift lever of an automatic transmission that allows a shift knob to slide and tilt according to a state of a vehicle or the driver's intention, or can restrict the operation of the shift knob.
2. Description of Related Art
Vehicles are equipped with a transmission for shifting, and recently, most vehicles are equipped with an automatic transmission.
For the shift lever operating the automatic transmissions of the vehicles, an integrated control electronic shift lever is applied to the shift lever for simple operating.
The integrated control electronic shift lever restricts or releases movement in a tilt motion direction in P-R-N-D shifting, and restricts or releases movement of the shift lever when it is switched into an echo-sports mode or a manual mode such that shifting is performed by operating the shift lever.
Although the integrated control electronic shift lever is simple because the operation distance decreases in comparison to the operation of conventional automatic transmission, a separate means for controlling the shifting in accordance with the state of the vehicle is necessary.
That is, when it fails to control the operation of the shift lever, an accident, such as sudden unintended acceleration, may occur due to unintended operation of the shift lever, such as a mistake with operating by a driver.
Therefore, the operation of the integrated control electronic shift lever is necessarily equipped with a means that can restrict/release the operation of the lever.
Meanwhile, Japanese Patent No. 4642419 relates to a device for locking a shift lever of an automatic transmission of a vehicle, which is a technology that can lock/unlock a shift lever with a lock plate and a link plate which rotate when electricity is supplied by a solenoid.
The information disclosed in this Background section is only for enhancement of understanding of the general background of the invention and should not be taken as an acknowledgement or any form of suggestion that this information forms the prior art already known to a person skilled in the art.